Hand painted Zeptonn original canvases. All 50×50cm. More soon!

Good day for these in NYC! A lovely rain boot design by our friend talented friend Zeptonn (who has a new site!)

Design for the Greenpeace summer campaign. The boot illustrates, in a positive way, the concept of protecting the tuna from overfishing by setting up sea-reserves. Available in a limited edition at festivals and online at the Greenpeace Fishmates Shop!

I’ve been watching the evolution of Cypher13’s SOFT&FURRY with keen interest. It began with a contest to create the forthcoming hand-cast toys’ logo. After 8 weeks of online competition, a winner, Shitty Kitten, was declared. The premise of the three S&F characters–LOOFT, DOO and GROOND–is that they existed at one point as soft and furry creatures helping all to breathe, drink and grow. But the natural balance of things was upset by the manifestation of greed, causing them to harden with gloom. Cypher13 indicates that they may be soft and furry once more though. To that end, they have recruited a stellar roster of worldwide talent to customize their resin figures. Just a few of the participating artists include: Argentina’s DGPH, Hong Kong’s Michael Kwong, Germany’s TILT, The Netherland’s Zeptonn and USA’s sketchBot. The first completed SOFT&FURRY figure just rolled in from Sydney Australia’s TOKO, and it’s a true testimony to typophilia. The rest of the gang will make their debut on September 13th at Plastic Chapel in Colorado.

Thanks to the show “Pimp My Ride”, turning an automobile into a blender or an XBox on wheels doesn’t seem so strange. While XZibit and the crew at West Coast Customs may have cornered the market on turning cars into complex appliances, Tim Roberts would like to make his mark by turning your car into a work of art. The founder of Infectious Car Art first experienced the miracle of the moving canvas when his college roommate paid a muralist $1,000 to paint his favorite character on a beat up old hatchback. The problem with that was that the decoration was permanent. Roberts company has remedied this problem by creating easy to install and remove vinyl designs created by some of the dopest designers around. Zeptonn, Dalek, and Jon Burgerman are just some of the names responsible for creating some of the most divine decals available to adhere to your automobile, whether you drive an Audi… or AMC.

Our pal Stinger, the Netherlands-based designer behind Zeptonn Labs, has finally dropped his latest book project, Black & White Freedrawings. So named thanks to the no restrictions given, no holds barred approach to the 160 drawings held inside, the book offers over 132 eco-friendly pages of collab-y art between Stinger and house favorites like Jesse Hora, Undoboy, and Shin Tanaka.

If you were wise enough to get your hands on a copy of Stingermania, you already know that Stinger’s books are more fun than a water slide in the summertime. However, unlike his other publications, there are only 450 copies of the first edition of Black & White Freedrawings, and the heavy beast is unbearably pricey to ship internationally (75 bucksies). In fact, unless you do happen to live in Europe, your chances of ever touching this book are slim to none– which is a crappy thought, especially for those of us who are about to give away one of the only copies of the book to ever touch American soil (that happens to come with some very nice giclee prints as well)… Sigh.

Yes, we’ve got one. For you, from Zeptonn. And you can have it if you are the first person to correctly answer the following question: what philosopher initially inspired Stinger to get his Master’s degree in Philosophy? Leave your answer in a comment to this post, yo.

Jan Willem Wennekes, also known as Stinger, crafts a killer monster. Well, “killer” in its most docile, endearing sense — because the creatures of this Netherlands-based designer have always had more success drawing aww's than arghh's!

As founder of Zeptonn Lab, Stinger cranks out his unique style of design for clients like PlayStation, Popcling, and Threadless, as well as a solid variety of art, design, and online publications. In between those projects, this eco-conscious designer spends his time creating some of the best books you've ever laid claws on, including one of our all-time favorites, Stingermania.

Just in time for the release of his newest book, Black & White Freedrawings (site coming soon), we chatted with Stinger about his work, his education, and how he's using both to make his world a pretty wonderful place.

READ MORE…

We always like to see new art from old friends, especially when that old friend is someone we like as much as Zeptonn lab. We are simply delighted to note there’s some fresh new limited edition canvas prints up on his website for sale. The canvases range from 0 x 40 cm to a whopping 150 x 70 cm and exhibit Zeptonn's familiarly playful and silly sensibility, evidenced by his smiley monsters in fantastic surroundings. If you're in need of some artwork to brighten up your surroundings, we suggest you get a move on to the Zeptonn site — there’s only 20 prints per canvas available and they won't last long.

Matt W. Moore knows the remedy to day job doldrums. An ex-agency man turned big-time web designer, Matt has never renounced his personal creative pursuits for his job – a sacrifice that today's creative types find themselves depressingly prone to.

From his early days in advertising to his current responsibilities (keeping the Burton website sparkly fresh), Matt has been filling his downtime with personal side projects that feed his soul as much as his bank account. His versatile career experiences — as gallery artist, pre-press designer, editorial illustrator, art director, and curator, to name a few — have given him the experience he needs for side projects like Wallspankers, a sticky extension of Matt's graffiti past, and the B/W Bangers, Matt's very own saving grace.

So what is the remedy? It's one part introspection; one part creativity; one part confidence –- and a little dose of self–publishing.

Joshspear.com: For a period you lived the increasingly common double life of an ad man by day/artist by night. What finally inspired you to start MWM Graphics?

Matt W. Moore: I actually started MWM Graphics while I was in college. I would side hustle logos, concert posters, editorial illustrations, anything that I thought would be exciting and help me grow as a designer. I caught an awesome break during my last year of school and started to work at an agency in Portland, Maine called The VIA Group. I later moved into an Art Director position there and worked on some fun accounts, all the while doing personal work and freelance in my free time. Now I work as a web designer at Burton Snowboards, and stay busy with all sorts of personal projects. The “double life” has been my style all along. I hope to one day break away and devote all of my time and energy towards my studio and making art. READ MORE…

We love Jan Willem Wennekes, aka Zeptonn. We love his silliness, his monsters, and his humorously fitting scholastic background in Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy. We’re also pretty into his new designs for blik (a vinyl art company that, incidentally enough, we also love), two awesome wall decals that feature more of Zeptonn’s classically fun-hunting beasts. Also, some good news: last time we wrote about Zeptonn, we painfully reported the sold-out status of his art book, Stingermania, however, judging by the reappearance of said book in the pages (wallspace?) of blik, the situation has been pleasantly rectified. You can even nab the book for cheap(er) if you buy it along with some Critters or Tumblers, so go get ‘em!

Team favorite Jan Willem Wennekes (of Zeptonn) just dropped word on his latest limited edition print. Even though I’m a huge fan and may have a somewhat skewed perception, I’m just going to put it out there and say that this is glorious. If you didn’t manage to scoop up a copy of Stingermania before it sold out, now is probably the time to get your monster fix; the poster is 50 x 70 cm (that’s about 20 x 28 in) and printed on 135 gram MC paper. He’s only throwing out 200 of these, so you can feel secure in knowing that your wall monsters’ scariness won’t ever be diluted from overexposure. Monstertastic.

The times I want to be anywhere other than Boulder are few and far between, but this weekend there are a few events in far off places that I’m a little teary over missing. First up; the Pop Cling Vinyl Show at Munky King on Melrose Avenue, where huge custom installations, drinks, and a painfully perfect list of guests (including Zeptonn, Luke Feldman, and Jeremyville; oh, damn them) will undoubtedly make for a memorable night. The fun goes from 7-11 tomorrow (Thursday) night, and they’ll be selling plenty of lustable wall decorations– just remember to wait until you’ve sobered up to start sticking. On the other side of the U.S., Legends of Style will return to the Boston Center for the Arts for one night only in a showcase of over fifty national and international artists, including The Love Movement and Spear Collective’s own Jason Thielke. Big-deal DJ’s Kon and Amir will get the beat going at 7 this Friday night; advance tickets are $15, or $20 at the door. Have fun lucky readers– and don’t worry; I’ll quit hating you by Monday. Full flyers after the jump…

READ MORE…

This is a new and entertaining book called Stingermania by Jan Willem Wennekes, known for his fun and wacky illustrations. Wennekes studied Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and runs his own design studio called Zeptonn. The book contains most of his recent artwork, it’s available for 15 Euros and is 44 pages of full-form graphic goodness.

Collaborations between companies have become extremely prevalent lately, but with some careful filtering you can spot the good and ignore the bad. One recent combination of forces, the wall decal meets t-shirt, is that between blik Surface Graphics and always favorite Threadless, fittingly named blik loves Threadless. Like the basis of Threadless, designers were invited to submit their creations, with the selected ones becoming blik wall graphics. Keeping in line with their existing product line, blik has opted for not one but two cheery designs as winners. First place went to 7.00 by Letter, which is composed of branches, leaves, and birds allowing you to configure your own nature inspired setting. The runner up, Happy When It Rains, by Singerstyler of Zepton, is filled with cute figures dancing amongst clouds, rainbows, and the sun.